


Coming Down

by Theshowmustgo_on



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Amnesia, Canon Queer Relationship, Canon Universe, F/F, Hallucinations, Korrasami is Canon, Paranoia, Post-Canon, Relationship Problems, Spirits
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-17 19:13:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9339155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theshowmustgo_on/pseuds/Theshowmustgo_on
Summary: When Korra returns home after a secret mission where she tracked down a powerful spirit, she struggles to move on from what she experienced, and to keep it hidden from Asami.I revised the first two chapters a bit, adding some stuff so it could flow better. Enjoy!





	1. Return

Five o’clock on a Monday evening a train coming from Gaoling entered its final stop at the Republic City train station. After everyone else seemingly got off the train, Korra slipped out of the cabin she had been in for the past four days and got off the train. With her head down she walked off the platform and through the station to the exit, hoping to go by unnoticed. 

Once outside Korra thought of where she should go first. The thought of surprising her girlfriend at work was enticing. Korra had last written Asami a week and a half prior saying that she planned to come back during the week of the twenty-fifth. Right now it was the week before that and Korra was imagining surprising her girlfriend at her office. She would surprise her with flowers, _those fire-lilies that she likes,_ she thought, and Asami would immediately drop everything and jump on her. They would go to dinner together and afterwards the park, and would finish up the evening at Asami’s place where she would spend the night. 

Shaking her head and sighing, Korra stopped fantasizing and swiftly threw her glider up in the air and jumped off the tallest step of the stairs, meeting her glider mid-air and heading towards air temple island.

 

……

 

As she grew closer to the island she scanned to see if she could see Jinora anywhere. The island seemed to be deserted, _oh right, it’s dinner time,_ but right then she recognized Kai practicing by himself near the spinning gates, so she decided he was the next best thing.

“Korra! Hello!” he said cheerfully, waiving at her as she landed.

“Hey Kai. Do you know where Jinora is right now? I need to speak with her.”

“She's probably eating dinner.”

“Well, why aren’t you eating dinner?”

Kai sighed, looking down. He looked tired. “I can’t. Tomorrow Jinora and Master Tenzin will be testing me to see if I can begin the fifteenth tier. I’m practicing right now. Jinora’s going to help me on it after she eats.”

“I’m sure you’ll pass, you’re a talented air bender,” Korra said warmly. “I’ll wait for Jinora with you here. I’m not hungry.” 

“Don’t you want to see everyone though? Haven’t you been gone on that secret mission-” Kai cut himself off by slapping his mouth shut with his hand. His eyes went wide and he started blushing.

“I forgot i’m not supposed to know that. I didn’t tell anyone I promise!”

Korra laughed and waived it off. “It’s alright Kai, I suppose if Jinora was going to tell anyone it would be you.”

“She’s been teaching me all her air bending spiritual moves…or at least trying to, so she told me about you tracking down that spirit. Why didn’t she come with you? Kai asked. "She’s amazing with the spirits."

“Honestly I didn’t think that the mission was going to be all that hard. Also I was told to come alone. If Jinora was to come then Tenzin would've had to know about it and then everyone would've found out and made a big deal. I couldn't have had everyone offering to come with me this time."

Before Kai asked another question Jinora appeared from the temple. 

“Korra! You’re back!”

“Yeah,” she said smiling. “Kai, do you mind if I borrow her for a bit?” she asked him.

“Sure. I guess i’ll ask Ikki to help me instead.”

Jinora apologized to her boyfriend and then she and Korra walked off in the direction opposite of the temple. Korra heard some people nearby. The last thing she wanted was to see everyone right now. “Lets go somewhere else. I don’t want to be seen right now.”

“Alright. Let’s go to my room,” Jinora said.

Once in Jinora’s room they sat down on the floor and faced each other in the lotus position. “When did you get back? What happened? Did you do it?” Jinora asked quickly.

“Slow down. You sound like Ikki.”

“Sorry. I’ve been worried about you.”

“It’s okay. I got back an hour ago.”

“Does anyone else know you’re back?”

Korra slumped her back and sighed. “No, I came straight here. I took a train from Gaoling.” Korra then sighed and pondered for a moment of how to start it off, “I completed the mission. I tracked down the spirit using the method you taught me and defeated it using spirit bending.”

“But you’ve been gone for three weeks! Tracking the spirit down took that long?”

“No. Once I got to the Gaoling province it only took me three days to track it down and defeat it.”

“Then why have you been gone all this time? I almost went to my dad.”

“Well I thought everything was fine but I experienced side effects from the spirit.”

“What do you mean? Like you got sick?”

“Kind of, but worse. The spirit messed with my mind somehow. For over a week after I defeated the spirit it was hard to function. I’ve never experienced anything like it…I almost died Jinora.”

Jinora was silent for a second, looking sympathetically at Korra. “We should’ve come with you. All of us. We all have experience with these situations-”

“I’m glad you didn’t!” Korra exclaimed, cutting her off. “It wasn’t a hard mission to complete. I knew I could handle it myself, I just didn’t know I would go crazy afterwards.”

Jinora was silenced once again for a minute while she processed the information.“In the letter the governor sent you it said that the spirit was doing some type of mind control. Was that it?” Jinora asked.

“No I don’t think so, it was something else. I knew from the beginning that was most likely not it, that’s just what the governor thought it was because a lot of the people the spirit affected were committing crimes, like vandalism and assault. But the spirit wasn’t making them commit those crimes. I think being near the spirit made them paranoid and hallucinate like I did, and that’s just how they reacted.” 

“It makes sense that people would react violently if the spirit made them paranoid, and if they were having hallucinations. What did you experience?” Jinora asked.

Korra had some reservations telling Jinora all of it. Everything that Korra hallucinated and did felt too personal to tell anyone. _She is like my spiritual advisor though, she can tell me what this all means._

“I’ll just tell you everything from the beginning. I have reservations telling you it all because you're a bit young but I trust you.”

 

….

It took over an hour to tell Jinora the whole story. Korra found herself venting and unable to leave out any of the smallest details of the last three weeks. Jinora mainly stayed quiet the whole time, not changing her focused expression very often. At the end she asked Korra some questions which she answered the best she could.

“Okay… It seems like the entire experience was just as if you had taken a strong psychedelic drug. Everything you experienced was random and it probably has no deeper meaning to it, even if a spirit is what caused it,” Jinora concluded. “It doesn’t seem like the visions from when you were tracking it in the swamp.”

“Yeah, those were completely different. Those were only mild hallucinations and I didn’t have any visions of past experiences or of people I knew because of the amnesia.”

Jinora bent her body a little closer and placed a hand on Korra’s shoulder. “It was noble of you to track that spirit down by yourself,” she said. “You potentially saved a lot of people. Go and try to rest for a while. If you start experiencing anymore symptoms tell me and i’ll help.”

“Thank you,” Korra said. 

“You're welcome. Are you going to go home now?” she asked.

“No, I should go see Asami. She’ll be happy that i’m back early.” Korra then sighed and looked down. “I don’t know how i’m going to even look at her. I feel guilty about it.”

“Don’t feel guilty. You didn’t do anything wrong. Like you said, you had no self control over your mind or body-”

“Not just about that. I had to lie to her about the mission. I told her that I went to Goaling to help the governor pass spirit legislation. She would’ve forced her way into coming if she knew what it really was.”

Jinora was silenced by that. She didn’t know what to say or what advice to give the Avatar. Korra got up and picked up her staff and backpack.

“Thanks for listening Jinora,” Korra said awkwardly.

“Your welcome. Everything will be alright with you and Asami. She’s understanding and she cares about your well being. Whatever you decide to do, she’ll understand.”

“I hope so,” was all Korra said before she exited Jinora’s room and quietly left the girls dormitory without anyone spotting her. Once outside she again swiftly threw her staff in the air and then ran and jumped, meeting with the staff mid-air, and heading toward the Sato estate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short fic, probably 3-4 chapters. This is the shortest chapter, like a prologue


	2. Guilt

The ride to Asami’s house calmed Korra down greatly. The sun had set and the summer air was cool at this time. The soft air current guided Korra straight to the estate, making the hour long ride easy. Korra’s exhaustion was starting to catch up to her. Even though she had been resting on the train for four days, she would sleep irregularly in bouts of one or two hours. She thought of Asami’s bed. Its big fluffy pillows, its light sheets, and its incredibly soft mattress. Whenever she spends the night at Asami’s house she sleeps like a log in that bed. The thought of it made her yawn.

As the estate came into view Korra woke up a bit. She became excited, mostly to surprise Asami. _I wonder what she’s doing right now._ It was around eight o’clock so she could really be doing anything that she normally does after dinner. Reading? Or maybe still working. _She’s definitely still working._ _She always overworks when i'm out of town_. _Maybe she’ll be able to take the day off tomorrow,_ Korra hoped. Either way, Korra wanted to really surprise her. _Awe man! I forgot to get flowers._

As Korra landed in the driveway she schemed up a way to surprise her girlfriend. She deemed scaring her as the best way. She looked up and saw that the light to Asami’s bedroom was on. Quickly, she jumped using her air bending and reached out and grabbed the edge of her balcony. She lifted herself up slightly so only her eyes were peering over the balcony’s edge. Looking inside her room, she realized Asami wasn’t in there, so Korra swung herself over the balcony’s railing and went inside Asami’s room.

She really wasn’t in there. Once Korra got inside she half expected for Asami to come out of her closet or bathroom. Giving up on her failed scare-surprise, she plopped her bag down on the bed and went in search for her girlfriend. She knew where to look first, in the place Asami would most likely be if she wasn’t in her room. _Her office_. The door to it was closed but there was lightseeping through under the door. As Korra brought her hand up to the door to knock on it, her heart started beating rapidly, making her nervous. She took a deep breath through her nose and knocked lightly on the door.

“Huh?” she heard Asami say, followed by muffled sounds of putting materials down on a desk and getting out of a chair. A few seconds later the door opened and Korra was face to face with her beautiful girlfriend. Asami’s face contorted into a look of surprise, shock, and then happiness all in one second. She jumped back a bit in surprise too, which was all Korra had hoped for.

“Wha…Korra!” she exclaimed before she pulled her into an strong embrace.

“Hey Sato,” Korra responded smoothly, before burying her face into the crook of her neck. Asami’s hair was wet and her skin smelled like soap. 

Asami pulled back from their hug and they kissed briefly. “I thought you weren’t coming back until next week.”

“Heh…well everything finished up early so I took an early train back to Republic City.” Korra pulled Asami back in for another hug and placed her head back on the crook of her neck. She held onto her firmly for a long time and swayed from side to side. Korra felt herself almost welling up. _Not now. Hold it in,_ she told herself.

“Uh Korra? Are you okay?” Asami asked.

“Huh?” Korra pulled away. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

Asami didn’t seem very convinced. “Are you sure? That was a long hug there.”

“Oh…I just missed you…a lot.”

Asami smiled widely at that. “I missed you too babe. You were gone for like three weeks. I would've visited but I had a lot to do here. I’m sorry.”

“No, its fine.” _Really, thank the spirits you didn’t come._

“Have you lost weight?” Asami suddenly asked. She was now looking at Korra up and down. “You look really thin.”

“Uh…I don’t know. Have I?” Korra thought back to what she had eaten in the last three weeks. _Yep, barely anything,_ she recalled. She had lost her apatite after she had defeated the spirit, and it still wasn’t entirely back.

“You definitely have, your cheeks look hollow. Babe you look exhausted,” Asami said with concern.

“I just had some trouble sleeping on the train, and they had like no good food on there.” Korra responded“I’m hungry now though. You already had dinner though, right?”

“Yeah but I have some left overs.”

They went down to the kitchen and Asami made some tea while Korra ate. 

“So how was Gaoling?” Asami asked.

“Uh, It was good,” Korra said after slurping up some seaweed noodles.

“Did you get any legislation passed?” Asami inquired.

“Yeah, everything is in effect,” she said in a fake cheerful voice. To make sure Asami wouldn’t get back on her case about her weight loss, Korra forced herself to eat the rest of her leftovers, which made her feel bloated. 

“Mmm. That was good,” hummed Korra, although a second later she swallowed a bit of vomit that came up her throat.

“Yeah, it was from this new restaurant that I went to last night.” 

Korra nodded “How have you been?” she asked.

“Alright. Mainly missing you, but i’ve just been finishing up some city planner stuff. Looks like the construction for the expansion effort will be totally done by next year.”

“That’s great! When did you find that out?”

“Last week. I’m basically done with my end of the deal. Once the contract ends I will be free way more often,” she said with a big smile. Korra reached out her hand and placed it on Asami’s.

“That’s great babe. You work too hard.”

“So do you. You just had a three week trip to help the government in Gaoling pass laws on spirits. That can’t be very easy.”

Korra frowned for a second, but then quickly forced a smile. “Well, now we can spend more time together.”

Asami nodded. “Definitely. I hate it how our schedules conflict so much. And not just ours, but Mako’s and Bolin’s too. Team Avatar is too busy for eachother these days.”

“True, but isn’t it great that the world is actually in balance for once and that team Avatar isn’t needed?”

Asami laughed at that. “Yes. You’re right.”

With Asami looking so kindly into Korra’s eyes, Korra felt very exposed. She quickly broke eye contact and looked down at the table.

“I need to take a shower. Can I use yours?”

“Yes, of course. I’ll go back to my office for a bit. If I finish what i’m doingi’ll be able to take tomorrow off. We could spend the day together,” she said with a smile.

Korra curled her lips upward for a second, but they didn’t form a full smile. She got up from her seat and went upstairs to Asami’s bathroom. She turned the water on and stripped out of her clothes while waiting for it to warm up. When she stepped in the water, Korra grabbed the soap and shampoo and sat down, taking the entire shower sitting on the marble floor. With Asami in the next room, her thoughts wandered to when she had arrived in Gaoling.

 

_Entering an small wood old building in the middle of the city, a secretary immediately greeted Korra and showed her to the governors office. The room was decorated nicer than the rest of the building. The desk was big and made out of mahogany like the desk at Asami’s office. All of the decorations on the wall, and the rug on the floor was the Earth nation’s traditional deep green._

_“Avatar Korra!” A man she supposed was the governor said. “Thank you so much for coming to help us” he said in a weird accent. He was a short, brute old man with a scruffy white beard, wearing old traditional Earth kingdom clothing. ‘Definitely an earth bender,’ Korra thought._

_“Is the spirit close by?” she asked after she bowed._

_He bowed right back, with his hands together.“Afraid we still don’t entirely know. We assume it’s near the outskirts of the swamp, but it’s possible that it has traveled to its interior.”_

_“Do you know what it looks like?”_

_“Not exactly, but we’ve gotten reports that when you get near it, you hear voices.”_

_“Voices?”_

_“Yes…” he said nodding with his eyes wide. “Voices that are completely in your head. The louder they are, the closer you are to it.”_

_“Your letter said that the spirit can control minds. How is it doing that?”_

_The governor sighed. “I’s don’t know. The people in the village are going crazy!” he exclaimed. “It’s normally a quiet little town, but they’ve beens acting up. They’re destroying their own homes and shops. Peoples are fighting each other for no reason. They’re acting like barbarians!”_

_Korra thought for a moment. ‘If the spirit is in the swamp then how is it controlling the minds of people in the village? It doesn’t make sense,’ she thought._

_“You say you can track the spirit down real quick?” asked the governor._

_“Yes. Though if he’s in the swamp then it might be a bit harder. You see, the swamp is filled with spiritual energy, so finding a spirit could be difficult.”_

_“I see,” the governor said. He pondered for a moment with his index finger covering his lips. “How about I send someone with you?”_

_“I thought you wanted me to go alone.”_

_“I wanted you to travel here alone but the swamp is big, and it’s a rough environment. Not to mention it’s already haunted, so you’ll be needing a guide.”_

_“Oh, no. I’ve been to that village and through the swamp before, and it’s much too dangerous with that spirit out there.”_

_“I realize you’re the only one who can bend spirits, but going out there alone is much too dangerous, even for the Avatar. If anything happens to you, I will be held responsible. I know a young man who used to live in the swamp as a child with the swamp benders. He will be your guide.”_

_Korra scoffed. ‘I’ve traveled the entire world without needing a stupid guide,’ she thought. “Okay,” she said, complying. “But I plan on leaving right now. Is he here in Gaoling?”_

_“Yes. Let me call him and then you two will leave. The village is a full days walk from here. Sorry someone can’t drive you there, all the roads leading to the village are closed. Then, the swamp is about an hour east from the village. Good luck Avatar.”_

 

 

“Korra?” Asami called, shaking Korra out of her thoughts. “You’ve been in there for a long time.”

“I’ll be out in a second!” She got up and turned off the water. Her hands and feet were all shriveled up. Once out of the shower she wrapped herself in a towel to dry off. She used some water bending to get some of the water out of her hair and some air bending as well to help dry off her skin faster.

When she exited the bathroom Asami was lying down on her stomach on the bed and listening to the radio. A pro-bending game was on.

“Who’s playing tonight?” Korra asked.

“Some new team called the red rhinos, and the fire ferrets. It’s a preliminary game.” she answered, turning onto her back.

“Really? How are they doing?”

“So far they’re winning. Those kids that took over the team are good.”

Korra grabbed her bag and took her night clothes out. “But not as good as Mako, Bolin and I were…”

Asami waived her hand sarcastically. “Of course not.”

They both laughed. “Why are you putting your clothes on?” Asami asked with a sly smile.

Korra looked at her a bit confused. “I…” _Oh._ “I guess I don’t know why,”  she answered a little embarrassed. Korra pushed her bag and clothes off the bed onto the floor and got in the bed. Asami turned the game off and then pulled Korra over her body and they kissed deeply. After a few minutes, they switched and Asami got on top of Korra, and they began having sex. 

“I love you,” said Asami while she sweetly kissed her neck. After that, Korra froze. She lay there hardly moving and she moved her head to the side to avoid eye contact with her. Her guilt was paralyzing her.

“Hey, are you alright?” Asami said softly after a minute, stopping for a moment.

Korra moved one of her hands onto Asami’s back and lightly rubbed it. “Yeah, i’m fine,” she said weakly. Asami didn’t say anything, she just looked in Korra’s eyes confused for a moment before kissing Korra’s cheek.

“You don’t seem into it,” Asami whispered in her ear.

“I am…,” was all Korra said in return. She lifted her head a bit and kissed Asami hard to try to convince her. Asami returned the kiss and a few moments later they started again. This time Korra played along a bit and tried to sell that she was enjoying it. As Asami kissed her chest, Korra moved her head to the side, and her mind wandered back again to Gaoling. Looking at the doorway of Asami’s bathroom, Korra herself appeared underneath it. She gasped at the sight. She was wearing her usual blue outfit, but it was dirty and wet. Her hair was out of its high wolftail, and there was mud on her face and clothes. All she did was stand there, looking straight at them, emotionless as Asami made love to Korra. Asami slowly kissed down Korra’s abdomen and had her hands grasping and kneading Korra’s breasts. Once down to in-between her legs, Asami spread them out a bit. Korra shut her eyes tightly when Asami's mouth kissed down on her sex. She hoped that when she opened them, she wouldn't see herself under the doorway anymore. Instead, when she opened them a moment later she was no longer in Asami’s room. She was no longer with Asami. She was lying down on her back in a big puddle of swamp water, looking up. Above her were all the vines and trees that the swamp was covered in, covering the sky.”

“HELP! SOMEONE PLEASE!” she heard echo through. Quickly, Korra got out of the water and tried to stand up…

 

“Ow! Korra,” she heard Asami say. Now she was back in the room all of a sudden. Turning her head to the bathroom she no longer saw herself under the doorway. Korra was sitting up and Asami was in between her legs.

“You kicked my side,” Asami said, picking herself up. “Did I hurt you?” she asked.

“No…I-” Korra said struggling, still looking toward the bathroom. All of a sudden she felt all her food coming up from her stomach. She pushed Asami out of the way and ran to the bathroom.

“Korra!” 

Korra ran to the toilet and quickly sat on her knees. She lifted the seat up andimmediately retched into the toilet. All the leftovers she forced herself to eat for dinner came back up. 

Asami ran in after her and gently grabbed her hair and pulled it back. After a few minutes, Korra spit out the saliva that tasted like her vomit and sat back down on her knees. She closed the toilet lid and then flushed it. 

“Babe, are you okay?” Asami asked. Obviously concerned.

Korra didn’t answer. Instead she got up and went to the sink to wash her mouth out with mouth wash. Then she splashed cold water repeatedly onto her face. Asami just stood there looking at Korra, confused.

“Are you sick?” she asked.

“No!” Korra responded a bit too forcefully.

“Korra what the heck! You come back looking like a skeleton and acting strange. Then you vomit out your entire dinner. Of course you’re sick!” Asami approached Korra but before she could get close Korra put her hand up.

“Don’t touch me,” she said with an edge to her voice.

“Are you mad at me?” she asked with her voice on edge.

“No-”

“Then why are you talking to me like that? What is up with you!”

Korra was silent for a moment. She sighed and grabbed a towel to dry her face. “I’m not sick. I’m just…exhausted,” she said softly.

Asami didn’t seem convinced, so Korra kept talking. “Maybe it was something I ate on the train. There was some uh… fish that I ate for lunch.”

“You look like you haven’t eaten anything for days,” she said with her hand on her hip.

Korra just shrugged and went back into the bedroom. She climbed into the bed, pulled herself under the thick comforter and looked at the ceiling. Asami came in a few moments later. Korra could tell she was looking at her, so Korra changed positions to where she was laying on her side with her back to Asami.

“Goodnight,” she said to Asami.

Possibly ten seconds passed before her girlfriend responded. “Goodnight,” she said as Asami turned on her other side.

 

……..

 

After hearing Korra’s story, Jinora felt exhausted. When she left, Jinora tried meditating but she couldn’t clear her mind. _I should’ve went with her. I could've said that I was going with her to help make spirit legislation in Gaoling._ She new this wouldn’t have worked, but having someone with Korra that she knew would’ve been better than that swamp guide. She took a deep breath and then exhaled from her mouth, opened her eyes and got up to go to the temple’s kitchen to get some lychee juice.

On her way to the temple she heard Ikki call her name.

“JINORA!”

Ikki came up to her from behind surfing on a big air scooter. Ikki was the only air bender that could stand perfectly straight on an air scooter and ride it like she was surfing, so she always showed it off. She blocked Jinora from moving forward and stayed on her air scooter with her arms crossed.

“Is Korra still here?”

Jinora raised her eyebrow at her little sister. “She left.”

“How come she came to see YOU? I haven’t seen Korra in forever!”

“She came to talk to me, and if you mind can you please not tell anyone else that she was here. Especially dad.”

“Why? Kai told me, so obviously you didn’t tell him not to tell anyone. And why would Korra only want to see you?”

Jinora had enough of her sister’s prying for one night. “Ikki get out of the way, i’m trying to get some juice.”

Ikki got off the air scooter but didn’t move out of the way. She gave Jinora the stare down, which admittedly worked sometimes in her favor but Jinora couldn’t tell her sister what she was talking about with Korra. If she told her then the entire Air nation would know.

“Get out of my way Ikki,” she said.

“Are you mad at Kai now that he told me Korra came to see you?” she asked. This was another one of her tactics into getting people to tell her things. _Not working this time Ikki._

“Knowing you, you probably squeezed the information out of him.”

“Well I had too! I didn’t want to spend my evening helping him prepare for the fifteenth tier. I’m on the thirtieth tier if you didn’t know, and i’ve been preparing to start the thirty-first. You’re the master, and he’s your boyfriend! You-”

“Ikki!” Jinora yelled with her hands balled into fists. “I advise Korra spiritually now, so sorry I had to prioritize the Avatar over Kai! Anyone above the fifteenth tier could’ve helped him, which remind you, is only you and Meelo.”

Ikki squinted her eyes at Jinora. “Fine, don’t tell me. But the next time Korra comes over, you better tell me she’s here,” she said pointing her index finger at Jinora.

“Okay. Now get out of the way so I can get some juice!”

Ikki begrudgingly got out of the way and formed another air scooter to ride to the dorms. Jinora went through the dining hall and turned on the light to the kitchen and got some juice out of the cellar.

“Hope you’re not mad at me.”

Jinora jumped back and closed the cellar door. Kai was hiding right behind it.

“Shit Kai, you scared me.”

“Sorry I snuck up on you,” he said with a grin. Jinora knew that was his intention though.

“It’s fine. And no i’m not mad you told Ikki that Korra came. She told me she pressed you about it.”

“Yeah, she gave me that stare she gives at people when she wants to know something.”

Jinora giggled. “Yeah, she just gave me the stare right now. I couldn’t tell her anything though.” Jinora then sighed and sat down on the floor in front of the cellar and Kai followed suit.

“What’s wrong?” Kai asked.

“I should’ve gone with Korra. Now she’s suffering because of what that spirit did to her.”

“But if you had gone then your dad would've had to know about it. Wasn't it a secret mission?”

“I guess, but we could've planned something out, even though it was a last minute-type situation.”

Kai touched a strand of her hair and placed it behind her ear, making Jinora blush a little. _We're never alone like this_. “I wouldn’t have wanted you to go risk your life on a secret mission. What if that spirit did what he did to Korra to you too?”

Jinora sighed. _That definitely would’ve happened. “_ You’re right. Honestly what Korra described to me sounded awful. It sounds like it's still affecting her.”

“Can you tell me what the spirit did to her?” Kai asked, grabbing Jinora’s hand.

“Only a little. A lot of the stuff she told me was really personal. I don’t think it’s my place to repeat it.”

Kai nodded. “Okay. It’s alright, i’m not going to press you like Ikki. Just tell me what happened.”

“Okay. I told you that she went to go track a spirit down in the Gaoling province, but I didn’t tell you that apparently the spirit could control minds.”

Kai’s eyes widen. “A spirit that could control minds?” he asked shocked.

“Yes, but it wasn’t doing that. Somehow if people got near it, they would act out and turn violent, which made the governor think that the spirit was controlling their minds. But Korra found out that instead if the spirit got near people then they would start experiencing paranoia and amnesia, and have strong hallucinations, which would make people react violently.”

“Is that what happened to Korra?”

“Yeah. The spirit was traveling to this big swamp in the Gaoling province, and so it went through a village that was located just outside the swamp. Almost the whole village was affected, and Korra followed it… right into the swamp.”

“Alone?”

“No. She had this swamp guide sent to go along with her. Once they found the spirit and Korra defeated it, she went to go see if she could find Toph. You know Opal’s grandmother? She lives in there, and Korra wanted to find her to see if she had been affected by the spirit. When they got to the cave where Toph lives, she wasn’t there, and it was night time so Korra and the guide spent the night there. When they woke up the next day, the effects from the spirit started effecting them.”

Kai was listening intently. “So what happened? How did they get out of the swamp?”

“Well it took a couple days for them to find their way out of the swamp because they both lost their sense of direction, and because the swamp messes with your mind anyways. Once they got out and reached the village, Korra’s symptoms climaxed and she forgot who she was. The governor ended up going to the villagea week later and he found them and took them to a hospital in Gaoling.”

“Damn. That’s crazy.”

“What’s crazy?” Pema said as she came through the doorway.

“Uh…” Jinora’s mind blanked on what to say.

“Curfew was ten minutes ago you guys. Be glad it was me who found you, and not your father Jinora.”

“I just came to get some lychee juice. And nobody obeys the curfew anyway,” Jinora said to her mother.

“Very true. But if it was your father who found you two here then he would talk my ear off about it for a week, and then he would strictly set the curfew for everyone.”

“Okay, sorry. C’mon Kai. Goodnight mom.” Pema said goodnight to the them and they left the temple and headed to the dormitories holding hands.

“Hey, do you want to head down to the docks? It’s a really pretty night.” 

“I’m kinda tired. And you should sleep. You have the test tomorrow, remember?”

“Well yeah, but you’re going to pass me right?”

“It’s not up to me…”

“Jinora!” 

“I’m just messing with you. I’m sure you’ll pass. But get a good sleep anyways.” They were in front of the girls dorm. Jinora grabbed Kai’s other hand and kissed him.

“Goodnight. Go to sleep.”

“Okay. Goodnight Jinora.”


	3. Discovery

The room was still. The only sounds were coming from the other side of the bed where her girlfriend was lightly breathing as she slept. Korra lay awake, staring at the ceiling and wishing that the night had gone better. If Korra thought she was going to be able to keep this from her girlfriend, she was wrong. _I’m going to have to tell her. All of it._ She moved her head to its side and watched Asami for a moment as she slept. She was sleeping on her side with her back facing Korra. Looking at her, Korra thought back to the brief hallucination she had earlier in the night. It felt real, and for a second she believed that she had never left the swamp, and that everything that had happened in the past two weeks were all a hallucination. 

Korra scooted over to Asami’s side of the bed, spooning her and draping her arm over her waist to pull her close. Korra felt her stir a little.

“Mmm…? Korra, what is it?” Asami asked half asleep.

Korra kissed the spot in between Asami’s shoulders. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. Asami stayed there for a few seconds before she turned around to her other side and faced Korra.

She yawned. “It’s alright,” she said with her eyes closed. She draped an arm over Korra’s back and moved her thigh over Korra’s, falling back asleep a moment later.

 

When morning came they were still tangled up together. Asami awoke to Korra’s head resting on top of her breast. Instead of getting up, she stayed there and stroked her hair lightly. She was incredibly confused about last night. The brief argument they had didn't make sense, and Korra ended up just pushing her away. Asami had thought that maybe she was embarrassed for throwing up, but it was unlike Korra to act the way she did. _She’s not telling me something. That much is obvious._

Asami thought about what it could be. _It has to be about her trip. What else would it be?_ She thought of how thin and exhausted Korra looked. _Why would she come back from a diplomatic job looking like that? Could she just be sick?… No, Korra never gets sick from traveling._

_She came home a week early,_ she thought, _and she had left all-of-a-sudden too. Something's up._

Korra started stirring from her position. “Mmm…” Korra breathed deeply in through her nose and opened her eyes.

“Good morning,” she said to Asami.

“Good morning. Did you sleep good?”

Korra kissed Asami’s shoulder. “Once we made up I did.” She stretched her legs and torso and then clung her arm to Asami’s waist. “I feel bad about last night. I didn’t mean to argue with you…or to throw up during, uh you know…all that. That couldn’t have been good for your self esteem...not to mention pretty disgusting.”

Asami scoffed. “Ya think?… It’s alright though. Are you feeling better now?”

“Mhm. Are you taking the day off today?”

“Do you want me to?”

“Yes.” she said quickly. “Of course. I missed you.” Korra kissed Asami’s shoulder again.

“Okay,” she said kissing her forehead.

Korra stretched her body again and yawned. “So, watcha wanna dotooday?” she asked slurring her words.

“You’re still tired, sleep some more. Later we can go out.”

“Alright,” she answered. When Asami tried to exit the bed, Korra tried to keep her in her arms.

“Stay,” she whined, “I can’t sleep without you here,” she said in a yawn.

Asami rolled her eyes. “I’ll come back. I’m just going to make some tea.”

Asami wiggled out of Korra’s arms and left the room. Her empty space was warm so Korra turned over into it and snuggled into the covers, falling back asleep moments later.

Asami went downstairs to make some tea. She listened to the radio and read the newspaper while she drank it. Afterwards she went back to the room to get dressed. On the floor were Korra’s bag and some clothes so she picked them up. As she walked over to the table where she would lay them down she dropped Korra’s bag and some stuff fell out. Asami grunted and proceeded to pick up the stuff that fell out and put it back in the bag, but her eye caught onto an envelope that was at the bottom of it. She took it out and read the return address. It was from the governors office in Gaoling. Asami contemplated for a moment if she should read the letter. She felt hesitant for some reason, but after everything last night, she had to know what was up, so she took out the letter and read it to make sure.

 

_Avatar Korra_ ,

_Goaling is in a state of crisis, and it is only you that I can think to ask for help. A dangerous spirit has been traveling through the southern part of the state. I am not sure from where but it is causing great harm to one village in particular that is located near the great swamp. We suspect that the spirit is controlling the minds of the people in this village. People are acting extremely violently and I fear the village is near collapse. Everyone who I have sent over there has not returned. Some villagers have reportedly disappeared and we suspect some have died as well. We suspect that the spirit is still in that area though we do not have a definite location on where it is. We wish for you to track the spirit down and help save the village. Please come help us._

_Governor Kohei of the Gaoling Province_

_Ps. I request that you come alone. We have closed all roads that lead to the southern part of the state to prevent anyone else from traveling there. The more people that are effected the worse the violence becomes. No one is immune._

 

Asami couldn’t believe what she was reading. A spirit that could control minds? Korra had lied to her. She didn’t know how to process all this. She looked at the bed. Korra was dead asleep. _Why didn’t she tell me? Was she ever going to tell me?_ Asami realized that Korra most likely didn’t want her to come so she lied about it, but she still felt hurt, betrayed, shocked. Conflicted, she put Korra’s stuff on the table without putting everything back in the bag, got dressed, and left.

….

The only thing Asami could think to do was to take a drive and try to calm down. It took everything in her to not wake Korra up and yell at her for lying about her trip. Her mind was racing a mile a minute. She went through a phase of feeling hurt, to feeling incredibly angry, and then back to feeling hurt again. _How could she lie to me? Why couldn’t she just tell me instead of going behind my back?_ This type of situation was unprecedented in their relationship and Asami didn’t know how to handle it. One thing was for sure though, _I’m not the only one that knows._

_Jinora._ Korra had to have spoken to her about it. They are extremely close, and she knew Jinora had been increasingly advising her spiritually. In that moment, Asami quickly made a u-turn and started heading towards the docks.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short one I know, but the next few will be long because Korra is going to be dreaming about her experience.


	4. The village

Once on the ferry, Asami calmed down a bit and was able to think more clearly. She was trying to figure out how to handle this. Going to air temple island like this seemed a bit over dramatic to her, and half way there she began to regret it. _What am I gonna do? Interrogate Jinora about Korra?_ She breathed in deeply through her nose and out through her mouth to calm herself- something Korra always did when she would meditate. 

“Arghh!” she exclaimed in a sudden fit. Her right hand balled into a fist, a habit she thought she had gotten out of. An acolyte turned and looked at her with a confused look, which made her want to jump off the boat. 

“Sorry,” she said, embarrassed. He just nodded back in return and then went to the front of the boat to grab the rope and dock the boat. 

Asami didn’t know where Jinora would be at this time, so she just walked toward the temple hoping to find her. Immediately she saw her with Tenzin, Kai and Opal over at the air bending practice area. She and Tenzin were watching Opal and Kai shift through a practice routine in-sync. _Should I approach them? I don’t want to interrupt-_

“Hey, Asami!”

Asami jerked her head around in surprise. It was Bolin, smiling and with a glass of lychee juice.

“Oh, hey Bolin. I didn’t see you there,” she said as they hugged briefly. “What’s going on over there?”

“Opal and Kai are being tested to see if they could go onto the next air bending tier.”

“Oh. Is that like a set of moves or something?”

“Kind of, i’m not exactly sure but they’re like levels of air bending mastery. You can get your tattoos when you pass all thirty-six or something.”

“Oh cool. Is that why you’re here?”

“Yes! I took the day off to support Opal.” He looked over to her and waived. Opal blew a kiss at him before starting another exercise with Kai. 

“Isn’t she amazing?” He said long and drawn out. Asami didn’t answer, she just looked on as they did the exercise. She looked toward Jinora for a moment and their eyes met. Jinora’s eyes visibly widened in surprise for a moment before she quickly turned back to look at Kai and Opal.

“So why are you here? Is Korra here?”

“Uhhh…no. I came here myself to talk to Jinora.”

“About what?” he inquired.

Asami looked down at the ground and sighed. Then looked once again at Jinora, who was intently looking and Kai and Opal. 

“Is something wrong?” Bolin asked.

“I…uh- come with me,” she said, taking Bolin’s arm and walking off in another direction.

“Heyyy. I was watching them,” he whined. “What is it?”

When they got far away enough from the practice area she let go of Bolin’s arm and paced around for a second. Bolin stood there looking at her with an eyebrow up, waiting for her to speak.

“Okay…so you know how Korra went to Gaoling?” she asked. 

“Uh huh,” he said nodding.

“Well she came back last night and was acting all strange, and she looked horrible- I mean like _really_ sickly. She threw up her entire dinner and then when I tried to help she just pushed me away and we got into an argument…But anyways I found out this morning that she lied to me about her trip. She went to Gaoling, but it was to track down a spirit that could control people’s minds.”

“What? How?”

“I don’t know, but I bet Jinora knows about this, so I came straight here.”

“Where is she?” 

“At my place. When I left she was still sleeping. She doesn’t know I know.”

“How’d you find out?” he asked.

Asami looked at her feet and sighed. “I found a letter that the governor of Gaoling sent her asking her to do the mission…I-I feel… I don’t even know how I feel exactly. Just hurt. She told me she was going there to help pass spirit protection laws.”

“That’s unlike her,” he responded.

_Well this isn’t the first time she’s lied like this,_ Asami thought, thinking of the time when no one knew where Korra was.

“I don’t know what to do,” she said solemnly.

“Yeah, this is a tough situation. Is Korra alright though?”

“I mean, from what happened last night, I would say she’s pretty shaken up. But I don’t know what happened. I just can’t get over the fact that she’s keeping everything from me.”

“Maybe she’s planning to tell you.”

“That makes it so much better…” she murmured as she lightly rolled her eyes. 

“Just be there for her. She’ll tell you everything with time,” Bolin said.

Asami’s anger flared at that. “What? I’m angry at her Bolin. This is her fault!”

“I’m not saying that her lying was the right thing, but we all know how Korra is. Sometimes she doesn’t think things completely through when the situation is urgent.”

_Yeah, when she was seventeen,_ she thought. Bolin continued, “You don’t know what she went through yet. She’s going to need you.”

His words of advice made Asami feel angrier, though she held her tongue due to feeling bad for snapping at him. 

“Look, I know you’re frustrated. Hey, how about we get some lunch at the mess hall and wait for everyone to finish up the exams. Then you can talk to Jinora.”

Asami breathed deeply once again and centered herself. “Okay.”

 

…..

 

The sun shone strongly through the windows and bled into the room, but Korra was in a much needed deep sleep. Surrounded by total darkness, a setting began to hazily appear in her mind. A small city with traditional architecture, the buildings mostly green. She was in a city square, waiting in front of a small wooden building as a young man approached her. 

“ _Avatar Korra?_ ” he asked.

“ _Hello, are you the swamp guide?_ ”

“ _Yes, i’m Sumo. The governor tells me we’re going to be tracking down the spirit that’s been wrecking havoc near the swamp.”_

Korra took a good look at him, trying to see if he looked capable. He was plain looking. Tall and thin, with light skin and black hair. “ _Yes. Let’s go_.”

They didn’t say anything as they left. There were guards guarding the main road out of the city, but they let them through without a word.

Korra looked at her glider, which she held in her hand. _It would’ve been much quicker to fly instead of walk,_ she thought.

“ _I hope you don’t feel like you’re babysitting me. I’ll be in my element in the swamp, so i’ll be fine.”_

Korra looked at the ground as they walked along the dirt path. _“I’m sure you’ll be fine, i’m just a bit annoyed that the governor is making someone that I don’t know come with me when he asked me to come here alone,”_ she said rudely.

_“Well, I guess that’s understandable,”_ he said.

 

The tempo of her dream sped up, and the setting quickly changed. It was nearly night time, and the village was coming into view as the sun set. As Korra and Sumo walked along the path toward the village, there was suddenly an overwhelming smell of smoke.

_“Campfire?”_ asked Sumo.

Korra squinted her eyes. Black smoke was pouring into the sky straight ahead of them. _“No, there’s a fire in the village!”_ She stuck out her glider above her head and started running. _“I got it! Meet me there!”_ she said as she took off.

 

 

The village suddenly flashed in her mind. Korra could see fighting in the street in front of the building that was on fire, so she landed down the street where she spotted a fire hydrant and metal bended it open. Water burst up into the air and she collected as much of it as she could. Suddenly a rock hit her back, and she lost her balance, dropping all the water she collected. Getting up quickly, she turned around to who threw it to punch back, but she hesitated. It was an incredibly old man, looking at her with a wild expression and making incoherent noises. He looked crazed, _those eyes,_ she thought. He quickly started punching more rocks at her direction, but she easily evaded them due to his sloppy aim.

_“Stop! I’m not going to hurt you!”_ Quickly she froze the water that was in the street, entrapping his feet and ankles. Before he could get free Korra ran away and headed towards the fire. As she ran, she saw someone that was face down in the gutter of the street. She stopped and turned him over and quickly checked his pulse.

_“No,”_ she said in horror as she realized he was dead. A big boom sounded and she looked down the street toward the building. It was beginning to collapse. She dragged the boy onto the sidewalk, gently shut his eyelids and then continued to run down the street toward the fire.

Once there, she realized the fight was much bigger than what she had seen flying above it. It looked like a small battle, and no one seemed to notice that the building was about to collapse onto the street. In a heartbeat she quickly threw both her arms in front of her and pushed as much air as she could at the crowd. Everyone was thrown back out of the way of the building just as it fell. Fire and smoke began to envelop the street, so Korra rose a big wall of earth to cover her. She then pushed it over on the destroyed building like a domino to crush the fire. It seemed to work so she got in position to raise another wall when a blast of fire flew near her head.

_“Woah!”_ she screamed as she ducked. The rioters that she blew away were now coming towards her, all with that crazed look in their eyes. The fire bender kept throwing sloppy shots at her while everyone else was running at her with weapons. Quickly looking to her side, she saw the fire getting larger with every missed shot the fire bender was throwing. Turning back, a thick fire blast was coming right toward her face without time to block it. She expected the hit but a shield of water swiftly blocked it, and Sumo quickly went in front of her. 

_“Stop the fire. I’ll hold them off!”_

Sumo ran toward the rioters and thrashed his water at them. Korra turned back and created another wall of earth and had it fall over and over to pat down the fire. Next she airbent strong swift blasts at the remaining pockets of fire in the street until everything was mostly out. Heavy smoke surrounded her, getting into her eyes and making it impossible to breathe. Korra held her breath tightly in her throat and squinted her eyes almost shut. Her lungs began to scream for air, so she covered her mouth, pinched her nose, and threw a sloppy air blast with her other hand. It hardly made a difference, so she closed her eyes and ran straight ahead to where she last saw Sumo. She felt the air get thinner as she ran but she didn’t open her eyes or breathe until she knocked straight into someone and fell on top of them.

_“Ugh….”_ Korra mumbled as she rolled off them. She fell on Sumo, who fell on the fire bender, who was knocked out. She got up and lent him a hand.

_“Thanks,”_ he said. He brushed himself off and looked at the guy on the ground. _“The power of the fall seems to have knocked him out.”_

Korra looked at the guy and then beyond. The other rioters were also seemingly knocked out in the street. _“Good job. Thanks for blocking that strike that was coming at my face.”_

_“You’re welcome…What should we do with them?”_

_“Let’s lay them down on the sidewalk. Hopefully by the time they wake up we will have found the spirit-_

 

The bedside telephone ringing woke Korra up. Her eyes slowly opened until the sharp ringing of the phone startled her. She then shot up and felt all the blood rush to her head, which made her head pound. 

“Ugh.” She put one of her hands to her forehead and answered the phone.

“Hello?” she asked, sounding hungover.

“Miss Sato? Will you be taking today off?” a female voice said on the other line.

“No- uh, I mean this isn’t Miss Sato.”

“Oh…Uh, then who is-”

“Miss Sato is taking work off today though,” Korra quickly said.

“Oh, ok. So should I cancel everything she has scheduled for today then?”

“Uh…wait one sec.” Korra covered the receiving end of the phone and called for Asami. She didn’t answer so she called again with the same results.

“Hey…Um I guess just push her appointments for today to tomorrow,” Korra said. _I’m pretty sure i’ve heard her say that before._

“Uh, ok will do. So…Uh good day.”

“Yeah…bye,” Korra said awkwardly. She hung the phone up and got out of bed. “Where are my clothes?” She looked to the other side of the room where she saw all her stuff disheveled on the table and floor. She went over to grab her clothes to put them on when she noticed a piece of paper of top of her backpack. Quickly, she snatched it to check and immediately her heart dropped. “Spirits!”

_She knows._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this fic is going to be longer than I originally planned. lol


	5. Sumo

Korra held the letter in her hands and stared at it for a long time. _Asami found it and read it. She knows about the mission, and that I lied to her._ “Dammit!” she yelled aloud. Her hand balled into a fist, crumpling the side of the paper and almost lighting it on fire. She let it fall on the floor and then got dressed and went downstairs, hoping that Asami hadn’t left. She walked around the mansion for a good ten minutes, but she wasn’t anywhere she looked _._

Korra plopped down in the nearest chair and took a moment to collect her thoughts. _Where’d she go?_ she thought. _She’s obviously not at work, so maybe she went…_ Her mind drew a blank. “Ugh. She could’ve gone anywhere.” _Should I just stay and wait for her here until she comes back? No, fuck that. I need to fix this now._

Korra got up from her chair and raced to the front door. _Wait…I need to check on Naga first,_ she suddenly thought. She turned around and went out back to where Naga was being kept in a stable near the racetrack. The moment Korra stepped inside the stable Naga quickly got up and jumped on her, huffing heavily in excitement and licking her face. 

“Aha! Naga! I know, I missed you too girl,” she said laughing. Her polarbear-dog stopped licking and pressed her face into Korra's body. Korra wrapped her arms around Naga’s head and then got up and brushed herself off. 

“How have you been girl? I haven’t been too good lately, though i’m happy to see you,” Korra said, hugging Naga’s head. “We need to go find Asami. I messed up girl, big time, and I need to make it right. Hopefully she’ll forgive me.” Korra sighed aloud and then looked into her dog’s eyes. She was staring back at her, giving her a look that said she understood. “Okay girl. Let’s go.” Korra grabbed Naga’s saddle from the wall and slipped it on top of her. Korra found herself feeling weak from the simple task, heaving when she lifted the saddle onto Naga’s back. The saddle was heavy, but that was never an issue for her. A rush of lightheadedness hit her suddenly, as if being hit by a big rock. Her legs then began to give out. Naga saw this and rushed to her aid, breaking her fall and guiding her owner to the ground.

“Ughhh.” The ground beneath her was moving in waves, which made her head spin. She heard footsteps coming her way, so she lifted her head and saw a young man standing in front of her, looking down towards her. _Light skin, dark hair._

“Sumo?” she asked weakly. He didn’t respond, just stared down at her emotionlessly.

A sob choked out from Korra’s throat and she began to cry. Thick tears escaped from her eyes, pooling at the bottom of her cheek. 

“I’m so sorry, Sumo. I’m so sorry,” she croaked out. She clamped her eyes shut and covered her face with her hands. She could feel him staring at her, but she refused to look at him again. She heard him move and then felt a hand gently touch her shoulder.

“Avatar Korra?” said a voice that wasn’t Sumo’s. Korra immediately opened her eyes and saw a man with a Future industries jacket kneeling down in front of her.

Korra was speechless for a moment. “Who are you?” she finally asked.

“I’m Yann. I work at the racetrack. Are you alright?”

Korra sniffled and blinked a few times to clear her eyes. “Yes, i’m fine.” She quickly got up and felt the blood rush to her head but didn’t let it affect her composure. 

“You don’t look too good. You should rest.”

“I was just about to leave.”

“I think you should either go back inside, or go home. You look ill,” he said worried.

“Look, I don’t know you,” Korra said rudely. “Whatever you think you saw, forget it.” Korra brought her hand to her forehead to wipe off the sweat.

“I’ve known Miss Sato since she was a little girl. Please, let me help. I’ll take you back to the house.” The man was sincere and Korra still felt weak, so she swallowed her pride and nodded at him. “Alright. Thank you.”

 

 

…..

 

 

“Good job. Opal, Kai, you will now move onto the fifteenth tier of air bending. Keep up the good work, you two are fine air benders,” Tenzin announced proudly.

“Thank you master Tenzin. You too master Jinora,” Opal said, bowing to them along with Kai.

“You can take the rest of the day to do what you please. You’ve earned it. Though can one of you go and fetch Otaku and Ryu? They’re next.”

“I’ll go get them,” Kai said. Tenzin gave him a small nod.

“Actually, can I take a quick break before we view them dad?” Jinora asked. “I-I forgot something- to do something… I forgot to do something.”

“Can’t you do it afterwards?”

“Uh, no. It’ll only be just a minute.” Jinora ran off before he could further question her. She went in the direction where she saw Bolin and Asami walk off. _They might be in the mess hall._ Sure enough, they were there having lunch. When Asami saw Jinora her eyes lit up.

“Jinora,” Asami called. “I was wondering if I could speak with you for a moment, but if you’re busy then it’s alright-”

“No it’s okay. I have a minute. Come,” she said motioning to the doorway. Asami got up and followed her into the empty hallway.

“I think I know why you’re here,” Jinora said.

“It’s about Korra. Did she tell you about tracking a spirit down in Gaoling?”

“Yes. I assumed you knew about it, but yesterday she told me otherwise. I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright. I’m just trying to make sense of what happened. She didn’t tell me anything, I found the letter the governor of Gaoling sent her.”

“Oh, you did?” Jinora asked sheepishly.

“Yeah. She should really manage her stuff better.”

“How is she?” Jinora asked.

“From what I can tell, not good. What happened? Could the spirit really control minds?”

“No, the governor just assumed that but we didn’t believe it. That’s the only reason why I let her go by herself even though the governor asked her to.”

Jinora continued, “I’m really worried about her. She saw me yesterday evening and it was easy to tell that she was a nervous wreck. But it was beyond that, I think she could have a bout of psychosis.”

“Why would she have psychosis?” Asami asked, shocked.

“The spirit. From what she told me, the spirit would emit this gas wherever it went and it had an incredibly strong effect on the human psyche. The only thing I can think to compare it to is when I got trapped in the fog of lost souls. The fog was a spirit that trapped you in your own mind, though it didn’t have a lasting effect on me once I got out of there. Korra’s case is different. She experienced completely different symptoms, and I fear it’s still effecting her.”

_That explains so much from last night._ “My goodness. Then what should we do?”

“Korra’s strong, she’ll get through this. We just need to be there for her and give her some time. She needs to take some time off and rest. Meditation should really help too.”

“I should be able to take time off now that my infrastructure contract is almost up.”

“That’s good, she’s going to need you. Dating the Avatar must be hard, isn’t it?” Jinora asked.

“Admittedly yes. Our schedules conflict a lot, we’re both busy all the time, and dangerous situations like this are always happening to us. But it’s worth it. I love Korra, even if she does things without thinking it through. I guess that’s just her job…Thanks Jinora.”

“You’re welcome. Korra loves you too. I’ve always thought you guys make a great couple. Come see me if she experiences any hallucinations. I gotta get back to viewing the exams.”

“Okay, bye Jinora.”

Asami went back into the mess hall and grabbed her purse. “I gotta go,” she said to Bolin.

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I just need to check up on Korra. Come by later with Opal if you want. I’ll see you later.”

 

…..

 

Korra headed back to the house with Yann by her side. He opened the back door for her and then went off back to the racetrack. Korra went upstairs to Asami’s office, where she had a transmission radio and signaled air temple island. Ikki picked up.

“Korra?”

“Yes, hello Ikki. Can you get your sister for me?”

“Why? You always talk to Jinora,” she said filled with jealousy.

“I’m sorry, I just really need to talk to her. It’s important. Please?”

“Alright. She’s viewing exams right now but i’ll go get her.”

A good five minutes passed when Jinora answered. “Korra? You there?”

“Yes, i’m here,” she answered.

“I was just talking to Asami. She knows about the mission.”

“Yes, I saw that she found the letter. Is she still there?”

“I think she just left.”

“Oh. I called to tell you that i’ve been having really strong hallucinations. I had one last night and then again just now.”

“That’s what I feared. Meditate. Clear your mind from everything you experienced.”

“Okay…Was Asami mad?”

“No. She was worried mostly.”

Korra sighed in relief. “Alright, thanks Jinora.”

“Your welcome. I really need to get back to the exams. I’ll call later, okay?”

“Okay, bye.” Korra turned the signal off and went downstairs to a sitting area and sat down on the carpet in the lotus position. _Breathe in…and out. Focus. Clear your mind_

 

 

_“Lets rest till dawn. We’re at the edge of the swamp right now but it’s too dark to venture in.”_

_“Okay,” Sumo said agreeing. He grabbed a mat from his backpack and set it down. Sitting, he patted the spot next to him, signaling for Korra to sit down._

_“Sit,” he said. The ground was mushy so Korra obliged and sat next to him._

_“Have you been here before?” he asked._

_“Yeah, but I don’t like to think about it. It was during a dark time in my life.”_

_“I see….Care to expand on that?” Korra gave him a brief look of annoyance, but then looked at the ground and relaxed her face._

_“I was traveling around the Gaoling province looking to reconnect with the Avatar spirit. My connection with her was severed after I was hurt in a fight with Zaheer.”_

_“Yes, I heard about the Red Lotus. That man Zaheer assassinated the Earth Queen.”_

_“Yes. I was going through Gaoling and I participated in this underground fight where I got my butt kicked-”_

_“Gaoling has always had a big underground fighting scene. Apparently that’s where Toph Beifong got her start. She met Avatar Aang at one of her fights.”_

_“I didn’t know that. Anyways, after the fight I came through the swamp village where I met a spirit that led me to where Toph lives.”_

_“The swamp benders and I used to see her from time to time, back when I still lived with them. She didn’t like us.”_

_Korra chuckled. “I don’t think she likes anyone. Hopefully she’s okay and the spirit hasn’t gotten her. What happened back in the village was scary.”_

_“I don’t understand why the spirit is making them destroy the village.”_

_“I don’t think it is. They didn’t seem to have a will of their own but I don’t think they were being controlled by the spirit.”_

_“Then why are they acting like that?” he asked._

_“I don’t know. They looked crazed. Like people that have risen from the dead. But whatever the spirit is doing, its obviously very powerful.”_

_“How do you spirit bend?” Sumo asked._

_“It’s difficult to explain. You take two lines of water and spin them around it, which puts the spirit in this trance. Energy from the spirit then flows into the water somehow and then the spirit dissolves into pure spiritual energy. It feels really weird.”_

_“Wow. I wonder if I could do that if I tried.”_

_“You know? You might be able to since you used to live here in the swamp. The swamp is filled with spiritual energy so you might have an inclination to be able to do it.”_

_“I grew up here, but I left at fourteen and moved to Gaoling.”_

_“Why?” Korra asked._

_“Life in the swamp is hard. People find it to be uncivilized, and I guess it is compared to how people live in big cities. There are hardly any other people living there now, my family was one of the last to leave.”_

_Korra nodded. Sumo was good company, and a capable fighter. ‘It was good that he came,’ she thought._

_“I’ll take the first watch. You rest,” she said._

_“No, you can rest first. I’m not tired.”_

_“Alright. Wake me in an hour.”_

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kind of a bridge chapter.


	6. The Swamp

Korra opened her eyes and slumped her back a bit. _That was not clearing your mind Korra,_ she told herself _._ She sighed. She couldn’t get Sumo out of her mind since her hallucination of him earlier that morning. _I don’t think clearing my mind will help me move on from this. I need to accept what happened to us, not push it away._ Straightening her back and taking a deep breath in, she put her hands together in her lap. She decided to try something different. Instead of pushing everything out of her mind, she would meditate on what happened in the swamp. She hoped to not conquer her newfound demons, but rather learn from the experience, and find solace with them. She held her deep inhale for a moment, and then exhaled slowly. She closed her eyes and focused on what happened next.

 

_Walking into the swamp, Korra and Sumo waded across a huge pond. The water was thick and murky, and it was deep. Sumo waded through it easier than Korra, but he still stayed behind her. ‘There was not this much water the last time I was here,’ Korra thought._

_“It’s wet season," Sumo said as if reading her mind. "It basically rains every night during this time of year. The water is going to be too deep for us to wade through as we get farther in. I can make us a canoe. It’ll be easier and quicker to get through it that way.”_

_“How long will that take to make?”_

_“Trust me. I can build one real quick,” he said with a crooked smile. Sumo looked around and then motioned his head over to a thick tree to his left that was on drier land. Without a word he pulled out a thick line of water a whipped it at the tree, chopping at it voraciously._

_“Get out of the way! It’s going to fall in this direction.” They were right under the line of fall and the tree was beginning to budge. But Korra stayed put, not entirely listening to what he said. She stared up at the tree, feeling bad for it. She was reminded of Kuvira, and how she had cut so many of these trees and vines already. Sumo just kept slicing his water at the tree in swift motions until he realized that Korra was still behind him._

_“I said move!” he yelled at her. But it was already too late, the tree buckled and started hurtling toward them. Sumo quickly jumped at her, knocking her out of the line of fall. They fell into big puddle, with the entire weight of Sumo on top of Korra, knocking the wind out of her lungs and submerging her head under the water._

_Quickly, Korra airbended him off of her with the full force of her arms. He flew off of her and hit his back against the fallen tree ten feet away, knocking the wind out of him as well. Korra shot up from the puddle and gasped for air. Sumo fell onto his knees and did the same thing._

_“What the hell was that!" he yelled when he got up. "I told you to get out of the way. I know that you don’t want me here but at least respect that I know what i’m doing.”_

_Korra got up from the puddle and waterbended the water and mud out of her hair. “I’m sorry. I just have a thing about cutting spirit trees. I don’t think it’s right. But I guess right now it’s necessary.”_

_“We’re not making a super weapon. Just a boat.” Sumo turned back to the tree and chopped a big chunk out of it._

_“Can I help?” Korra asked._

_“I can make it quick enough without it,” he said in an annoyed tone. Korra felt bad. Though she didn’t want him coming at first, thinking that he would only slow her down, he quickly proved himself otherwise._

_Sumo was thrashing around multiple water edges at the big chunk of wood, slicing and carving quickly as the boat began to take form. ‘Good technique,’ Korra thought._

_“I know I was rude beforehand about you coming with me. I’m sorry about that. Sometimes being the Avatar makes me feel like I have to take one for the team and face the biggest danger alone, which I do, but not all the time. My friends have always been there helping me. I guess since I was asked to come without them I wanted to prove to myself that I could do this alone, but I was wrong.”_

_Sumo stopped at her words, set his water down and turned back to her. “It’s alright. I don’t know a thing about the responsibilities of the Avatar, and i’ve never done anything remotely this important before.”_

_“Don’t you work for the governor though? That’s important,” she said trying to reassure him._

_“I work as one of his groundskeepers at his estate. I’m just a lowly uncivilized servant,” he said, looking down at the ground._

_“That’s not true,” she said. “You’re a great water bender from the looks of it. Your style is completely different, rawer than anything i’ve ever seen. I can tell you weren’t traditionally trained, but you’re still obviously a master in the art.”_

_“Really?”_

_“Definitely,” she said smiling. “Friends?” she asked with her hand out at him._

_“Friends,” he said, taking it and giving it a firm shake._

 

_……_

 

 

_“So how are you going to track this thing?” asked Sumo as he pushed the boat into the water and jumped on._

_“It’s not going to be easy. I know how to track the spiritual energy in a person, but spirits are different. Spiritual energy in people feel distinct. Everyone has their own specific energy. With spirits it all just feels the same to me. This place already has so much spiritual energy in it due to the spirit vines. It’s going to be hard to separate the energies.”_

_“So what you’re saying is that the vines that cover this place have the same type of energy as spirits do?”_

_“Yes. Honestly I can’t tell the difference. But maybe I can sense the spots that have more spiritual energy.” Korra closed her eyes and focused. She could feel the energy thrumming around her, something she couldn’t do the last time she was here. When she tried to sense what direction had the most energy, she was surprised by how easily she sensed where the strongest, most abundant amount of energy was. It felt as if everything was leading to that direction._

_“Of course. The banyon grove tree. Do you think the spirit could have been traveling to there?”_

_“Looks like that’s the only lead we’ve got. Lets go.” Sumo stood up at the back of the boat and started waving his arms and torso around, propelling the little canoe like a speedboat._

_“You remind me of my friend Mako,” she said, smiling at him._

 

 

_……_

 

Asami entered her home with a bag of Korra’s favorite dumplings and treats for Naga. She was about to call out for Korra when she spotted her in the corner of her eye. She was sitting on the floor in a living area, meditating. Asami looked toward her girlfriend sympathetically and walked over to where she was. She set the food down on a nearby table and then sat down next to her. She could tell Korra was meditating intently, otherwise she would’ve noticed her coming in. She decided to just let her meditate, thinking back to what Jinora had said to her earlier. Asami laid down on her back and stretched her body out. She stared at the ceiling and thought about her relationship with Korra. Ever since becoming her girlfriend, Asami realized that there was so much more to Korra and her character than she previously let on to her and their friends. _She’s such a sweetheart,_ Asami thought. _Our relationship has been so good so far, I can’t see myself possibly being with anyone else in the future. If we’re going to be together then I can’t let something like this destroy us. I can’t let it slide either per-say, but if she’s willing to work on it, work on us, then I am too._

Asami yawned and stretched out her body again and shifted to her side. She stared at her girlfriend briefly as she meditated. _Maybe she’s in the spirit world,_ she thought as she drifted off to sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so you know, the relationship between Korra and Sumo are not heading in any type of romantic direction. They're simply just friends. Aslo, with Asami's part in this story. I know it seems like the only part she has in this story is as Korra's girlfriend. That wasn't my particular intention but the story is more Korra centric, and while Korra has to deal with everything that happened on her mission, Asami is having to deal with the sudden change of state in their relationship. I apologize if it comes across that way though.


End file.
